One man has made a real life laser shotgun - and it's terrifying

published 9 June 2015

"Damn, that's a cool gun", said every gamer ever upon their first encounter with a laser weapon.

Whether it was Dead Space's plasma cutter or Metroid's power beam, guns that shoot pure energy are innately more terrifying than their projectile-based counterparts; that lack of "BANG", the lethal accuracy, the distinct lack of bullet holes. How can light do that?

One person to ask is YouTube project builder styropyro - a man with a disconcerting obsession with laser-based weapons (we hesitate to call them "toys").

Using entirely legal diode arrays and lithium batteries, his latest creation is a 40 watt laser shotgun/rifle/beam weapon.

We're pretty sure this is how supervillains get started...

As Content Director of Shortlist, Marc likes nothing more than to compile endless lists of an evening by candlelight. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.